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UFS wins big at 2019 IABC and MACE awards ceremonies

12 December 2019 | Story Amanda Tongha | Photo MACE

MACE read more — Staff members from the Department of Communication and Marketing celebrating their MACE Excellence Awards.

The Department of Communication and Marketing again received national and international recognition for its communication and awareness campaigns this year.

On 28 November 2019, the department made a big splash at the national Marketing, Advancement, and Communication in Education (MACE) 2019 Excellence Awards, winning multiple awards for its work in communication and marketing. Scooping up five awards, the department earned accolades for the communication campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process, the Kovsie App, and awareness campaigns for gender-based violence and the Kovsies Multilingual Mokete.

This comes on top of the two awards the department won at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Africa Silver Quill Awards during an awards ceremony presented in Centurion, Gauteng, on 16 October 2019. During this event, the department was also acknowledged with an Excellence Award for the Kovsie App communication campaign and a Merit Award for the communication campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process.

Celebrating the best in marketing, advancement, and communication

Hosted annually, the MACE Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the excellence of specialists and practitioners in marketing, advancement, and communication in the higher-education sector. MACE plays a vital role in adding value to practitioners through high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at member institutions.

At the 2018 MACE Excellence Awards, the Department of Communication and Marketing received the prestigious Severus Cerff Award, presented to a higher-education institution that consistently excels in the fields of marketing and communication. The department also brought back six other awards, including three gold awards, which are awarded to the highest-scoring entries in the 30 categories evaluated. These ranged from brand-building campaigns to print publications; website to social media, assessed by marketing and communication professionals in the higher-education and private sectors.

Continuing its winning streak at the 2019 MACE Excellence Awards held in Port Elizabeth from 27 to 28 November 2019, the Department of Communication and Marketing was singled out for keeping stakeholders informed on the MT Steyn statue review process. For this, the department received the prestigious Business Issue Special Award, presented to an entry that successfully addressed a critical business issue.

Student Recruitment content

Staff members from the Department of Student Recruitment Services celebrating their MACE Excellence Awards

Being recognised nationally and internationally

Adding to the UFS tally, the Department of Student Recruitment Services was also recognised at the 2019 MACE Excellence Awards for its communication campaigns to market the university. The department won three awards, one gold (for the School Anthem – Petunia Secondary School campaign) and two bronze awards for the Light the fire – Grade 9 school subject choice intervention and Re-engineering of the UFS Undergraduate Prospectus 2020 campaigns, bringing the number of UFS MACE Excellence Awards for this year to eight.

Lacea Loader, Director: Communication and Marketing, who accepted the Business Issue Special Award on behalf of the University of the Free State (UFS), says the recognition affirms the role the department plays in building and promoting the UFS brand.

“I am immensely proud of the national and international recognition the Department of Communication and Marketing received for its work this year. Being recognised by our peers for quality and innovative work is most rewarding and it demonstrates the dedication and commitment of a highly innovative and creative team.”

The awards won by the Department of Communication and Marketing included three gold awards for the communication campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process, Gender-based violence Awareness Campaign, and Kovsies Multilingual Mokete Communication Campaign; a silver award for the KovsieApp Communication Campaign; and the Business Issue Special Award for the Communication Campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process.

- A record number of 202 entries from 15 institutions were evaluated in the 2019 MACE Excellence Awards.

News Archive

A huge student turnout for NBT

2010-02-24

Ms Babongile Bomela (seated, left) and Mr Riekie Vickers (seated, right) with some of the first-year students who wrote the NBT's. They both acted as invigilators for the tests.
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

More than 5 000 first-year students at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently wrote the National Benchmark Tests (NBT).

These tests are used to complement first-year students’ Grade 12 results and provide a profile of student competencies that the university can use to improve the quality of teaching and learning to enhance student success.

This was the first time that the UFS had made use of the NBTs, which were thoroughly piloted at several South African universities during 2009.

“A total of 5 449 students from the Main, South and Qwaqwa Campuses participated in this very ambitious testing process,” said Ms Merridy Wilson-Strydom from the Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development (CHESD) at the UFS.

“Altogether 7 687 test papers were completed. This is an excellent turn-out and highlights our students’ commitment to their studies.”

It was compulsory for all students (excluding those from the Faculty of Health Sciences) to write the Academic and Quantitative Literacy Test (AQL). Students from the Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences as well as Natural and Agricultural Sciences also wrote the Mathematics Tests.

“AQL targets students’ capacity to engage successfully with the demands of academic study in the medium of instruction, and the ability to manage situations or solve problems in a real context that is relevant to higher education study, using basic qualitative information that may be presented verbally, graphically, in tabular or symbolic form,” she explained.

“The Mathematics Test targets students’ ability with regard to mathematical concepts that are formally regarded as part of the school curriculum and tested in the Mathematics Examination Papers 1 and 2.”

The NBTs have been developed with inputs from over 300 academics from all the 23 universities in the country. They are available in English and Afrikaans.
Data integrity is quality-assured by the Assessment Systems Corporation in Michigan, USA, and further interrogated by the Education Testing Services in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

The NBT results of UFS students will be available by the middle of March 2010. First-year students who do not perform at the required proficiency level in the academic literacy domain will be required to complete a language development module. This module is offered in both English and Afrikaans, depending on the chosen medium of instruction of the student.

Media Release:
Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
2 March 2010

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